We all have those sneaky partners or even siblings and parents that have a habit of indulging in our matters, especially when it comes to text messages. Sounds like a bit problematic situation, doesn’t it? Well, with the latest technologies and a little tweaking around, you can easily make the most out of the situation, especially if you know the right tricks.
If you use an iPhone, you know that the Messages app doesn’t come with a separate setting for locking or hiding the messages – at least not one that the general users know. For someone who has been in awkward positions and situations uncalled for, we can say for sure that you need to ramp up your knowledge on this.
Be it a teen or a person of any age, everyone loves their privacy, especially when it comes to personal messages. If you are tired of not knowing how to fix things around, this article should give you a better insight.
Following are some of the best ways you can hide and then unhide your text messages from your iPhone.
How to Hide Messages on iPhone?
Before we delve into the unhiding process, we must shed some light on the ways to hide the messages. Keep in mind that hiding the text messages on iPhone doesn’t permanently delete them. So, if you are confused about the same, don’t worry because these tricks won’t end up deleting your messages indefinitely.
To make your life easier, we have sorted out the top ways you can easily hide your messages on your iPhone without any hassle.
Hide Messages from Lockscreen
While not every person will have access to your home screen and individual apps, the lock screen is more or less accessible to anyone around. If you don’t want to get into a situation with awkward text on the lock screen, we have just the right workaround method for you.
Follow the steps mentioned:
- Start by opening your iPhone and then navigate to the Settings.
- Under Settings, go to Notifications and then scroll down to the “Messages” app
- Under messages, scroll down and find the “Show Previews” option. It should be Enabled as default. You want to Disable it to stop the notifications from popping up on your lockscreen.
What this does is hide the messages you have received. So, unless someone unlocks the iPhone and opens the Message app, they won’t be able to view the message.
In case you don’t want to receive any kind of pop-up notification on the lock screen, you can completely disable the “Allow Notifications” feature to stop them from coming in. However, we’d not recommend doing this because you might miss out on important messages.
Set Time Limit for the Messages Application
Another constructive way to keep the messages hidden is by setting a definitive timer. You can set the timer for when you are not around your phone so no one has access to the text messages you receive.
Here’s what you need to do.
- Start by opening your iPhone and then open the Settings app
- From Settings, navigate to “Screen Time” and then click on “Turn on Screen Time”
- Click on Continue
- Under that, click on “This is my Phone”
- Set the desired four-digit passcode to secure the Screen Time
Under that, select the App Limits and then set the desired Screen time that you want to lock the notifications for. This works well when you are giving the phone to someone else and you don’t want to receive any frisky text messages during that time.
When you have the Screen time set, it takes you three trials to watch the messages before you need to enter the code to enter the app again. This way, you can easily secure your messages without any hassle.
Using Cydia
If nothing seems to be working out for you, Cydia is an effective application that can sort out your problem without any complications at all. Just keep in mind that this one works only in the “jailbreak” iPhones. So, if you don’t have one, we’d recommend sticking to the other ways we have explained.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Open your iPhone and then open Cydia app
- Under that, find the “Hidden Convos” tweak and install it on your iPhone
- Once done, navigate and open the Messages app on your iPhone
- From there, swipe left on the individual message or the list of messages that you want to hide from the application
- Due to the Cydia app, you will have an additional “Hide” button. Click on that.
The process is simple but quite tedious because you have to hide individual messages one by one. Also, it doesn’t stop the notifications from popping up on the lock screen, so you will have to do that using the methods we have explained above.
Using Notes App
Yes, you heard it right; you can hide your text messages on an iPhone using the notes app too.
For this, you need to follow the steps mentioned:
- Start by copying and pasting the message into a new Notes
- Once done, you can lock it.
- In case you want to preserve the date, time and sender, you can take a screenshot of the message and send it to the Notes app and lock it there.
- You can lock the individual notes by swiping right on the saved message in the notes. Once done, save the message with a passcode so no one else has access to it.
How to Unhide a Message on iPhone?
So, you have hidden a bunch of text messages on the iPhone. How do you unhide them for future reference? This is a complicated issue that many users don’t have any idea about. Just because you have hidden the message doesn’t mean you can’t undo the process. Typically, it is an extremely easy and effective process that you can get started with.
Here are a few steps to follow along:
- Start by opening your iPhone and open the Messages app
- Once there, click on the Edit button
- Under that, you will find an “Unhide All” option that you need to click to unhide all your hidden messages
- You can either individual unhide the messages or you can unhide them all together. The choice is yours to make.
Can I use third-party apps?
Yes, there is a range of third-party applications available on the iOS store that enables you to hide and unhide your messages without any issues. However, they do come with certain limitations and some are even paid applications.
If we had to pick a few, we’d recommend looking into options like Shady Contact, Hide SMS and Vault. These are free applications and are quite secure too.
FAQs
1. Why should you hide messages on your iPhone?
Most people want to hide their messages due to privacy reasons. If you don’t want your partner or friend to get sneaky with your messages, then it’s better to hide them. People also hide their messages when it’s something personal and they don’t want anyone to see it. Hiding messages is completely normal and there’s nothing wrong with it.
2. What happens if you hide your messages on your iPhone?
The quickest way to hide messages on your iPhone is to turn off the message alert feature. This way, your phone screen will not light up when new messages come through. These message alerts give a preview of the messages on your lock screen. By turning it off, you can prevent everybody near you from reading your texts.
3. Can I unhide my messages on my iPhone?
To unhide your messages on your iPhone, go to the Settings app, and then to the Notification section. Find the Messages option and select Notifications. Here you will get the option to unhide alerts from the Notification Center, Lock Screen, and Banners.
4. How to hide messages on your iPhone using the time limit feature?
When you are not around your phone, you can set the timer to lock your notifications. This will prevent anyone else from accessing the messages you receive. This option comes in handy when you lend your phone to someone else. If you don’t want them to go through your private messages, you should use the timer.
Conclusion
It is never easy trying to save your privacy from the prying eyes around you. If you don’t want to get into the complications of having your messages blasted out to the world, we’d recommend you look into the options we have shared in the article. Just keep in mind that you need to focus on the overall hiding and then unhiding procedure and always do it via secure methods so they aren’t deleted in the process.